A new recipe

Yesterday marked the 15th day that I've been doing this, so I decided to set myself a half-way challenge: can I cook and eat something with both tuna and tomatoes in? I went for the safe option of a tuna pasta bake (in this respect, I guess I'm cheating, as I happily ate tomato sauces before this), and set to work cooking for some friends. They were slightly shocked to see me pull two tins of tuna out of my shopping bag, and even more so when I personally opened and drained them, a task which before I had gagged about. In fact, such was my earlier revulsion, I couldn't even stand the smell of tuna being opened, and to be honest, the smells that come out of a freshly opened tin of tuna aren't my favourite, but I've trained my brain to ignore them. I set about making the sauce as normal, tossed in the tuna and bunged the whole lot in the oven.

It was tasty. Not exactly haute cuisine, but I could taste the tuna, and I actively enjoyed it. There will be photographic evidence coming soon (once I get my friends to email me the pictures!) of my first public foray into tuna since I was about 7 or so. My overall conclusion from it was that it might not be something that I actively cook for my wife and I every day, but it will be worth keeping tins of tuna in the cupboard against a lazy day of cooking.

The next part of this challenge is to work out how to best prepare the tuna so I can take it to work for lunch. Tuna mayonnaise makes me gyp a little, so any suggestions would be welcome!

(p.s. for those wondering how my wife is getting on, I'll post an article about her tomorrow)

Quality is everything

My wife made the observation when we started this challenge that maybe my problem with the first few tomatoes was that I had bought the value range. My main reasoning behind it was that I knew that I wasn't going to enjoy the first few days, so I didn't want to waste money on them. As I predicted, I found them horrible, and felt like I wasn't making any progress with them. Over the weekend, we went food shopping, and I was strong-armed into putting the most expensive tomatoes into the basket. I baulked a little, but having tried one today, I'm glad that I did. The texture is still not my favourite thing, but the taste of them was actually pleasant. I still reeling from it a little. Up till today, I have been manfully chewing it down, trying to think positively about tomatoes, but today I finally got an insight into why people like them. I started thinking about one of the most beautiful dishes I see in Italy, beef tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, and wondered if I'd like it. I usually just pick the tomato off, and dislike the dish as mozzarella is bland by itself, but now I want to try it. Maybe Heston was a little bit right...

Slowly, slowly...

Over a week into the challenge (and a week since my last update, apologies) and it's gaining more interest than I thought when we started the challenge. I've had comments from friends on Facebook who haven't been in touch for months, including a friend from my old swimming days, who reminded me of the times when I would survive on tomato ketchup sandwiches...how times have changed! Either way, the challenge stirs up a variety of different responses, from "Why not just leave them on the side of the plate" to "Why are you blogging about eating?". Each person has their own view as to whether it's worth doing, their own anecdote about a food that they didn't like then started eating bits of, and their own theories as to how to make it work. It makes food conversations go a little bit deeper, and you find some interesting common themes about foods people like and don't like (olives tend to stir up a fuss when brough up, but they are the usual food people use as examples to me about food they now like but didn't before), and how people's taste in food changes over the years.

It also makes me question the reasons why I don't like tomatoes and tuna (or didn't in the case of tuna), and I think it's more of a psychological thing than anything else. I have distinct memories of not liking them as a kid, so I've never really tried them, and each time I see them my brain goes through the same loop again and again. There is the whole texture of them, but I'm getting used to that as the days go by, and I found myself on Tuesday thinking "Tomatoes are not the worst thing I've ever eaten". Tuna is another matter. Once I get over my brain's rigid structure of not liking tuna, I find it OK. Whilst I'm not going to be making a tuna pasta bake any time soon, if it was made for me, or put on pizza, I'd certainly give it a try. Of course, if I don't like it, I could go and find a ketchup sandwich to take the taste away.

Tuning into tuna

Firstly, I will say that this food experiment is not the highlight of my day. I might not be dreading as much as I did on Tuesday, but the idea of eating those foods at some point when I get home doesn't fill me with joy either. However, I've taken the get-it-over-with approach, as dragging out the experience makes it worse.

So, I hear you cry, has anything changed yet? In terms of the tomatoes, no. They are still tasting grim, though my colleagues at work made the valid point that I may not be able to start to like them whilst I dread eating them. An interesting point. How much does my subconscious hatred of tomatoes affect what my taste buds are telling my brain? If I say the words "mmm yum" before I eat them, will that speed things up? I'll try it and tell you.

In terms of the tuna, I didn't mind the after taste today. I discovered that my wife had mixed me some tuna mayonnaise for the last couple of days, which I hated the smell of, but today I ate some straight from the can, and I've got to be honest and say it wasn't the worst thing I've ever tasted. We'll see how I feel about it tomrrow, but I guess the next step is to actually make something with tuna in it (or use it as a pizza topping). The experiment continues...

Blergh

So it has happened. For the first time in my adult life, I have voluntarily eaten a quarter of a raw tomato, and two forkfuls of tuna fish. It was hanging over my head the whole day, with people at work laughing at me for it, and my wife sending "hilarious" messages throughout the day designed to make me panic. The worst news was on the way home, when I called home to find out that she had already eaten a quarter of a pepper. Two things sprang to my mind. Firstly that I had wanted to suffer together, and secondly: A quarter!!! Seriously! I had imagined tiny bites to begin with, working up to a quarter in a week or two. I still can't believe she set the bar that high.
So I got home, and naturally procrastinated for a bit, but managed to get my head into the game about 15 minutes later. I've never felt so nervous, and it took some serious nerve (and heckling and abuse from my wife) for me to take the first bite. The result of day one is that I still hate both of them. I almost couldn't swallow the tuna for gagging, and the tomato was possibly the worst taste I've ever had. This is going to be one long month...